Marketing 101

"Preserving your body never enters your mind. Preserving your history never leaves it"
All Blacks

That quote was used in a Marketing/Branding book I'm reading. It gives me an idea about a future post but I'll save that rambling. I think there is quite a bit in that quote if you just read it again and again.

I'm a believer that there aren't a great deal of brilliant marketing minds out there. I'll admit that I'm not really one of them either. But there is one thing I will admit to is to never stop trying to learn the game. Kind of like my approach to Triathlon this year. I know how to train there is no doubt about it. It was time to learn a new way of doing it, so I hired a coach and not just any coach. One with his own philosophy and different than the standard out there. We'll see the results on my body Sunday. Back to Marketing. I'm constantly on the lookout for new ways to do one of the easiest jobs in the world. Find people who love something, build a product for that something and then connect you to the people. Marketing is really a simple process. The problem of course is that everyone has discovered how easy it is and there is a ton of competition for that one person you have that product for. So I think you have to keep learning to be better than them, or just become one of them trudging to work everyday mad because your product isn't moving like you thought it would.

How do you find the brilliant marketers. I suggest you listen closely to other people. Here's an example. I was in a meeting a few months ago planning out the future for my company. The big boss said something that struck me, "we have to get back to establishing love marks". I had heard that before but it really sounded strange coming out of his mouth. He's not the lovey kind of guy at work. Then a colleague of mine from Latin America mentioned a book to me called Lovemarks. Any time someone mentions a book by name I write that name in the corner of my journal. Then when Mary says she's placing an Amazon order (I know, I'd rather buy at a book store but it is Germany and English books are not plentiful) I give her my list of books. The problem is I usually have more books on the list than I can possibly read. So I asked her to buy the book Lovemarks. It arrived and it was not anything I was expecting. I expected a business book and it's more coffee table size. I set it on the bookshelf for another day. 6 months later I'm staring at the book and figure now is the time. Oh what a gem it is. It's very entertaining in a marketing kind of way and it's really easy to understand. I'll read it and it now goes on the list of books to read again. Go figure, with all the brands to choose from you have to go beyond the brand and move to love. Just read it, or don't.

Now for essential daily dose of marketing you need to sign up for Seth Godin. When I say sign up, you can have his Blog emailed to you every day. He writes every day and 4 out of 7 a week are totally worth the read for me. I use his ramblings daily. Many I already know but it's good to get a refresher. I'm convinced he his shadowing me. I may be sitting at my desk banging my head against the wall trying to get my head around a topic. I take a break, open my email and there it is. The answer I've been looking for from Seth. I may be working on how to deal with an co-worker and he's talking about how to deal with a customer and all of the sudden I'm treating the co-woker like a customer and it works. Sign up and get inspired.

I've decided to update this blog twice a week. Wednesday and Sunday. You can check back every week or you can sign up to follow the Blog. Over on the right side there is a widget to sign up. It's really easy and you can have it emailed to you or just opened up on your google account. Again, only if you are interested in my ramblings. I'm convinced at least that my Dad and my Sister read this regularly. So at least now if they sign up to follow it they won't have to remember to look.

It's a good life....
Dave